A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery - A Sea of Troubles

Double barreled mystery that is a real page turner. Brunetti finds himself drawn into a fishing village where multiple murders are committed and where he confronts his attraction to an involved assistant.

I like Leon's stories a lot, perhaps especially for characters having doubts about what they are doing and their ethical choices both personally and professionally. And people make mistakes ... even the most gorgeous and clever secretary that ever lived

I love the Commissario Brunetti series and am reading them in order. However, this particular book did not match its predecessors in terms of either readability or storyline. The plot and characters are sometimes hard to follow, as the books jumps around. For example, one minute Brunetti is investigating the murders; the next minute he is drowning in paperwork. Also, the idea that an experienced, professional police officer would agree to allow an administrative assistant to go undercover to investigate brutal murders is a bit farfetched.

Loved this tale could not put it down.
Amazed that she keeps coming up with completely new story's ,the way she manages to weave these stories so unpredictable,
and addictive. So well done great subject mater. I was caught off guard on this very real tale of how greed and the weather can
Possibly changes one's life forever!
You will not regret this read.
Left me wanting more, Enjoy!

The story focusses on the historical research being done about the life and work of an obscure Baroque musician in 18th century Venice.The young researcher involved is presented with two cases of materials unopened since he musicians death and she is required to find out if anything of value still exists after 200 years,close enough.....This information she is to deliver to the two cousins to whom it may belong.. I found the story, such as it is, to be choppy , at times icomphensible, repetitious and tedious, its content out of the scope and interest of this general reader. .At one point there was rather a pointless, as it turns out, stalker,----I imagine to give some needed action to the story to keep it going.Beside the repetitiousness of it, there is little to sustain the story beyond its scholarly trappings, unless the reader has interest in 18thcentury Venetian and German musicology. The only "momentum" finally came at the very end of the book --- at any event a sort of hint of some regrettable actions in the historical period that could have given rise to the final outcome as revealed by the suitcase'contents.
sancho

This book used too many terms that were not explained in English leaving one to guess at the meanings. While the setting was a collection of small villages with slow moving, tight knit communities, the plot was also unnecessarily slow moving. It didn't pick up speed until the story was two thirds of the way to solving the mystery. I had to discipline myself to finish reading. The ending was good.

Donna Leon never disappoints. She is an excellent writer. I love her descriptions of places and people and she keeps the story moving along. The interactions of Guido and his family and co-workers, especially Signorina Elettra are priceless. I'm both listening to using the audible feature, and reading this book and am enjoying both. I've read or listened to most of the series with only a few more to go, hoping very much that she will keep wp with my need to know more about the Commissario and his family and, of course, Venice, beautiful and corrupt.

Usually, I enjoy this series, but this one fell a little short, I think. I like a mystery where there are logical and reasonable conclusions, rather than always putting the hero/heroine in a situation where they are at the mercy of the killer.

Love the series and recommend to those who love Venice, may be visiting the city or just like detective novels. My only complaint is the number of typos and formatting errors in the Kindle editions of these books.

Leon misfires on this one. Set in the Venetian out-island of Pellestrina, Commisario Brunetti and company set out to solve a few murders. The book brings Pellestrina to life wonderfully, but also delivers a slow-moving, predictible plot; tired characters (including, alas, Brunetti himself); and Leon's obligatory screeds against religion, corporations and whatever else is bothering left-wing malcontents these days. The ending is not worth the time spent reading. Leon has written much better books in the Brunetti series. We're overdue.

Leon misfires on this one. Set in the Venetian out-island of Pellestrina, Commisario Brunetti and company set out to solve a few murders. The book brings Pellestrina to life wonderfully, but also delivers a slow-moving, predictible plot; tired characters (including, alas, Brunetti himself); and Leon's obligatory screeds against religion, corporations and whatever else is bothering left-wing malcontents these days. The ending is not worth the time spent reading. Leon has written much better books in the Brunetti series. We're overdue.

Donna Leon is wonderful at painting verbal pictures of life in Venice. It's a city that people who don't live there, envision as magical, beautiful, and far away. Leon brings it closer, exposing the lumps and bumps of living in a city, threatened every day by the sea and the confusing world of Italian and Venetian bureaucracy.

In A Sea of Troubles, Commissario Guido Brunetti investigates a double murder on Pellestrina, a finishing village on the Venetian lagoon. Those who live and work there don't trust outsiders, much less, policemen who know noting of their way of life. Welcoming to tourists during the season, but suspicious of everyone else. Knowing this, Brunetti allows Signorina Elettra, who has family living there, to spend a week on the island, trying to learn as much as she can about the men, a father and son, who were killed and their boat set on fire. Instead, she finds romance, and the reader finally sees her as much more than the woman who is a whiz at finding information on the Internet.

In the end, it's the policemen who are most in danger, unlike many other stories in the series. Even so, justice is served, although the price is high.

Another book in this great series. Two fishermen are found murdered in their boat docked at the island of Pellestrina. No one in the community trusts the police and they maintain a wall of silence.
Commissario Brunetti shares his frustration with the boss' secretary, Signorina Elettra. Against Brunetti's protestations Elettra takes vacation days and goes to the island to visit relatives. Brunetti's case goes nowhere as Elettra starts a romance with one of the local fisherman. The plot gets a bit merky and stretched after that. Although the story was still good, it wasn't on a par with Donna Leon's other books in the series.

This novel allows Signorina Elletra Zorzi to step away from her desk and go underground in a murder case of two local fishermen on the island of Pellestrina (a city southwest of Venice). A fire breaks out on a fishing boat and two men are found. The village clams up when the police come; thus Elletra decides to visit relatives and search for clues.

The various local police administrations are not interested in taking on this case; thus it falls to Brunetti. The citizens of the island are unwilling to talk with outsiders; Brunetti has his hands full of unhelpful inhabitants.

In this story, Brunetti has to think about his emotional attachment to Elletra. As Brunetti worries about Elletra, he comes to realize he has feelings for her. Paolo, his wife, and members of Brunetti’s staff note that he seems overly-concerned about Elletra’s safety.

In many of these Brunetti stories, our hero out-thinks his adversaries. In this book, however, there is plenty of action.

This book has much more action which caused me much more worry than in the earlier books. Signorina Elettra does more than sit at her desk looking pretty and reading magazines and acting smug. She actually gets involved and falls dangerously in love. Brunetti, as usual, doesn't have his gun when he needs it, but not sure if it would have worked if it got wet, but the boat pilot's cellphone worked fine at the end and, as far as I know, wasn't protected by a zip lock bag.

I would like to know how Paola learned to cook as she grew up in a house of great privilege. Perhaps, she had a cooking tutor. Still, she manages to produce fantastic sounding lunches and dinners despite working as a professor. Perhaps, when you cook well, it's not a chore. I guess I wouldn't know, but I sure would like to eat the food she makes.

For me, this book was the most entertaining of the first ten in the series. The poor reviews mystify me.

Venice, queen of Italy's radiant cities, is the fictional birthplace of two superb detectives: Donna Leon's Commisario Guido Brunetti, of the Venice police; and the late Michael Dibdin's Aurellio Zen, of Rome's central crime bureau.
Now, thanks to television series, we have screen versions of both: Brunetti has been played by two German actors in the series shot in Venice (in German, which is amusing; with both Uwe Kockisch and earlier, Joachim Krol, as Commisario Brunnetti); while the BBC is producing a series of Zen mysteries (with Rufus Sewell superb as the Machiavellian Zen).
the store has over a dozen of Leon's Brunetti novels on DVDs, including this one, "A Sea of Troubles", ninth in the series.
Leon has lived almost 20 years in Venice, but her novel are explicitly not translated into Italian, because, as she said in an interview, "I don't want to be famous. I don't like being famous and I don't want to be famous where I live. I just don't like it. ... I have enough ... all of the Italian publishers would kill to have them. I don't want to be famous."
Her creation, Brunetti has no need to be famous either. He solves his cases by doggedness and the tendencies of bad people to continue doing bad things, thus causing their own downfalls. Such is the case here. The villains are brought low by their own crimes, deeds, and voices. Brunetti's family and his police colleagues are as active in "A Sea of Troubles" as in Leon's other books; wife, son, and daughter giving Brunetti the celm space and reflections he needs; colleagues Signorina Elettra, Sergeant Vianello, even the clownish police chief make Brunetti stumble onto the more enlightening paths.
Brunetti never has firm "comfort zones," he is a man ill at ease in his own head, but this novel brings him far more than his share of "A Sea of Troubles."

Excellent mystery. This one is about the murder of two clam fisherman,
father and son. The father much detested by everyone thus no surprise
he was murdered but the son , most loved was also slain. This happens
on the island of Pellestrina on the Venetian Lagoon. This is an area
where people absolutely refuse to talk to the police about anything
as they do not trust them. Commissario Brunetti is sent to investigate.
The Questore, secretary, Signorina Elettra happens to have a relative
there so volunteers to go as someone in vacation to see what she can
find out. IN the pub where everyone it seems gathers, she meets a very
handsome man who happens to be the nephew of another fisherman ; this leads to a very intriguing tale. By the way she is supposed to be in contact
with Brunetti but he has a hard time getting in touch with her and when
he does she won't explain who the man is. He has also sent a policeman
to work in the bar to see what he can find out and he tells Brunetti who
the man is so Brunetti can investigate and finds out Elettra's new
boyfriend isnt quite what he seems. Signorina Elettra , the secretary
of the Questore seems to know how to find information on anyone anywhere.
She is also very b eautiful. Her description in the book reminds me of
a young Gina lollabridgida -stunning but with quite a brain to go with it.
This is one of my favorites of Donna Leon. This is a cant put down book.

This is a terrible book; insulting to Italians and very surprising because other of this author's mysteries are quite good. The plot is poor and the characters are very flimsy-even the main character who is the hero of this whole Venetian series; it really doesn't seem to be written by the same author. Even continuity is off - the children of the main character appear to be younger than earlier books, or at least behave that way. The premise could have been interesting, and I suspect that is the only real input the author had in this book. Too bad.

Donna Leon has achieved what most series writers cannot. In Commissario Guido Brunetti, she has created a real protagonist, an old friend that you visit with each succeeding book. Sea of Troubles is more physical than her previous books, and while hardly "action packed", the book explores Brunetti's feelings more deeply.

Twi brutal murders in Pelestrina take the story away from Venice and into the closed community of fishermen. Outsiders are not welcome nor trusted, and among those most to be avoided are the police.

Leon does a wonderful job with her secondary and tertiary characters, crafting memorable people with only a few sentences. As always Brunetti's superior, Vice Questore Patta comes across as a preening fool, and Sergeant Vianello, Brunetti's muscle and sometime conscience, also plays true to form.

As always, the city of Venice, and in this case Pelestrina, are important to the book. Like Boston is to Lehane, so to is Venice to Leon. Palpable, sometimes oppressive, old cities with a social hierarchy to be reckoned with.

Leon, while not yet crafting a stunning book worthy of 5 stars, (this is the 9th), has written a literate and satisfying series.

Ironically, I firs saw copies of her book in Venice, on the bookshelf in the Peggy Guggenheim museum. A wonderful introduction...and very Venetian.

Donna Leon simply is a mesmerizing writer. No other author--and some do come
close--approaches her today in terms of suspense, characterization, plot
development, and social significance. In "Sea of Troubles," she continues her
exceptional level of excellence. I could hardly wait for this edition (it's not available
for some incredible reason in the States!)to arrive.
Guido Brunetti has his hands full, once more. Two men (a father and his son) are
found murdered in a sunken fishing boat in the waters off Pelligrina. However, the
villagers close ranks and are in no hurry to cooperate with the police. Enjoining the
services of Signorina Ellatra, Brunetti begins a painful, plodding investigation.
With this type of story, Leon is quite good--and she never lets up on the
environmental issues ("Don't eat the shellfish!").
Her murderers don't come as surprises in the final pages, as Leon doesn't use this
device; instead, she depends upon the brilliant thinking of Brunetti and his team to
bring the guilty, whom we know early enough, to bear. This is not to say that "Sea
of Troubles" doesn't contain great suspense--it does. And Leon, who clearly is in
love with Venice, captains this book in the best of traditions. Lucky she has Guido
Brunetti and his staff and family as crew members. Don't miss this one! ([email protected])

This episode in the life and times of inspector Brunetti did not disappoint. The reader is transported beyond the boundaries of Venice into the murky waters of the micro culture of Pellestrina fisherman and their families. Elettra works undercover opening up for Leon via Guido and Paola an exploration of fidelity and the various facets of genuine love. The climatic and climactic ending brings drama and clarity after the turbulent bora rips through the region and the dredges up the final resolution.